Happy Birthday, Hermione, Happy Birthday to You
by DreamingOwl
Summary: An iPod challenge drabble set for Hermione in honor of her birthday. Mentions of RHr and HHr. Not terribly canon compliant, not terribly not canon compliant. Based upon a Maroon 5 Pandora station.


**Hello everyone! It has been awhile, hasn't it? Oops. **

**Anyway, because it is our favorite bookworm's birthday, I knew I had my annual obligation to post something. I have for years now (yes, I know there is only one other on this account, the others are somewhere else), so I'd hate to stop. **

**This is an 'iPod' challenge, although I used a Pandora Station (centered on Maroon 5), since my iTunes isn't fond of working. The rules, as I have them, are as follows: **

**1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.**

**2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.**

**3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterward!**

**4. Do ten of these and then post them.**

**Anyway, feel free to sing Hermione Happy Birthday and enjoy these drabbles. They're not in order by time or even a part of the same universe, I'd need to be much better to pull that off. **

**Enjoy!**

**(Oh, and if you haven't put 2 and 2 together yet, I don't own Harry Potter, Hermione Granger or any of the songs. I just like playing with them.)**

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><p><strong>One Republic - Apologize<strong>

She was done with him. Hermione Jean Granger and Ronald Bilius Weasley were no longer going to be a thing, that was for certain.

She was tired of his scathing commentary on how she wasn't a proper woman. She wasn't a good cook. She was always working too late. She never wanted to go out on lavish dates to the most expensive restaurants and she didn't want to watch him play Quidditch seven days a week.

"You did for Harry," he accused her and she snapped.

"Well you're not Harry!" She yelled back. He wasn't her dark-haired best friend who never provoked her, who understood she _needed _to succeed in her career before she started a family, who liked her as she was.

It was too late, no apologizing would fix them this time.

**Photograph - Nickelback**

She laughed when she came across the box of photographs. On top was one of the Golden Trio from first year. Below it, one of her and her parents in front of their old house before her first trip to Hogwarts. Another of Hogwarts in all its glory. She smiled as she pulled each photograph from the box, each memory reminding her of lighter days.

She wondered if one day she would return there, finish her last year of school.

Another picture made her pause and wonder. It was of her and Viktor standing in their Yule Ball robes. He'd been her first kiss, the first boy to make her feel special, like she was a young woman and desirable for more than her brains. Now he was courting a woman, the last she'd heard, and it was serious.

She sighed. It was time to say goodbye to the memories, pack them away and put them in their box to be stored with her grandmother. Hopefully she'd see them again, but for now, the memories were going away, as was she, as were her parents.

**From Where You Are – Lifehouse**

Hermione stared up at the stars, the loneliness filling her heart. She was so far from everything familiar. She missed Hogwarts and its safety. She missed the Burrow and the chaotic Weasley family. She missed her parents; she missed her old house with its creaking stairs and climbing ivy.

She missed the feeling of her mom's hugs, the beating of her heart as she held her close.

She missed the years that she'd erased from their memories, when a hug could make everything.

They were miles and worlds apart right now, as she stood in the Forest of Dean and all she could do was wish they were here.

**It Will Rain – Bruno Mars**

Harry looked at Hermione dancing with a broom as she tried cleaning the kitchen, a muggle radio in the background.

He wondered what he would have done if she'd left him, ever. Everyone called him the savior of the Wizarding world but it wasn't him, it was her. If he had saved them, it was only because she had saved him. He'd sacrificed himself to save her and he'd do it again and again if she was safe. Hermione was his best friend. She was worth it.

'Her parents must hate me,' he thought. He'd put her in so much danger over the years, they had to despise what he'd put her through. From the trials of the Sorcerers stone, to the Department of Mysteries to the Horcrux hunt, he'd only put her at risk. No parent would appreciate that.

And yet, he was ever grateful, for without her, there was no sunlight.

**I'll Be (Acoustic Version)- Edwin McCain**

Hermione looked over at Harry as he poured over books on Dragons. He stole her breath away sometimes. Those emerald eyes he concealed with glasses, that stared into hers and made her forget what she was doing.

She wished he would love her the way she felt she did him. She wished he would spill confessions of his feelings as Austin heroes did to their heroines.

Yet for now, all she could do was be there for him in good times and bad. She could be there as a shoulder for him to cry on and the biggest fan in the stands at his Quidditch games. The one who did everything possible to keep him safe. She liked him alive after all, and if keeping him that way meant long hours at the books until the letters swam in front of her eyes, she would do it.

He was her best friend and the boy she thought she just might love. She'd be everything he needed, and hopefully, one day, all he wanted as well.

**She Will Be loved- Maroon 5**

Harry looked over at his eighteen-year-old best friend and sighed. She was so beautiful and yet she didn't know it. He had always (almost) been there to help her, yet even now she belonged to someone else. He would do anything for her, but he didn't seem to ever be what she wanted.

He didn't mind if he had to stand in the rain tracking her down to comfort her. He didn't mind if she came over in the middle of the night and woke him up. He didn't mind it as long as she was safe, for she would always be loved. He'd realized sometime during the Horcrux hunt that she was the only one he could see himself with forever.

Oh they fought sometimes. It wasn't always rainbows and butterflies, but their fights always ended (sometimes a day or two later) in a compromise. They did not stay mad at each other for weeks, until apologized were forced out by someone else.

Yet if she picked another (like his mate, who she was dating at the moment), well, she'd always be loved, even when he had to say goodbye.

**When I'm Gone – 3 Doors Down**

Somewhere deep inside of her, it was dark and scary. She was talented at acting –not anyone would believe it but it was true- so everyone just saw the good, light, bookworm. Yet she wasn't. Inside she was dark.

Yet she wanted his love. She knew she didn't deserve it but she wanted him to hold her, to tell her when she was wrong. Most wouldn't, they took her word as gospel. He pushed back though. He'd tell her if she'd gone too far. And she'd always try to be worthy of his presence in her life, always work for _his _good, even if it meant doing things that weren't good. She'd give up everything for him and all she wanted in return was his love when she was gone.

She fought the darkness sometimes. Others it felt like the light she'd once had was gone completely and she was blind, or maybe it was just too dark to see if she could.

But it would be okay, because she could protect him, and maybe he would love her memory.

**Demons – Imagine Dragons**

He wondered if she could see it. In the icy winters, when even saints seemed dreary and fake, when dreams seemed far away, he wondered if she saw beyond his façade. Hermione was the most intelligent witch, so of everyone she should be able to see his demons, right?

He wanted to protect her, shelter her from what he knew lay in his heart. Yet he knew it would come out and no matter how much good he tried to do, she would feel his heat and see the demons.

She would see the part of him that had killed Quirrel, the part that had slayed a basilisk, that had cast Sectemsempra on Malfoy and for a moment liked it, the part that had been willing to cast 'Crucio' on Bellatrix Lestrange.

She would see it, and he hoped she wouldn't be its next victim.

**100 Years – Five For Fighting**

Fifteen years old and she'd been sitting at her desk, dreaming of when she would see him again.

At 22, life was finally getting back to normal after the war. She had a great job, and friends to visit on the weekends.

At 33 she was married, a life growing within her.

45, she was seeking a new job, one with more challenge for a life that seemed too routine.

Suddenly it seemed she was 50, then 75 with only a quarter of life to live again.

Then she was a 99 and so old, counting her children and grandchildren and running out of hands. She was wise and gnarled, her hair bushy and gray.

She kept looking back at her youth, at the adventure. She wished she could be back there, with another 85 years ahead. 100 was just not long enough.

**Halfway Gone- Lifehouse**

She felt like she was already halfway out the door. She'd found a relationship with Ron something that was difficult to grasp. Their lives were so far apart.

So when they fought this past time, she realized he was already so far away that it wouldn't take long for them to be completely gone. And she couldn't find it in her heart to care. If he wanted her back, he needed to do something, show her she mattered to him. If he took too long, she was leaving.

They didn't live together, and Quidditch took him away from her often. When he was around, she had work to do. She saw Harry more often than she saw Ron.

Yes, she was halfway out of this relationship and couldn't seem to care.


End file.
